STUDY: LANDFILL SALE WOULD CARRY RISK

Supervisors to consider selling sites or possibly leasing them for millions of dollars

Cash-strapped Riverside County could generate tens of millions of dollars by selling regional landfills, but a sale would carry significant risks and ongoing costs, according to a study that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

At the same time, the study says Riverside could earn $1.1 million to $3.4 million per year by accepting and burying another county’s solid waste. And the staff is recommending supervisors make a bid to take some of Los Angeles County’s waste.

The big neighbor to the west is preparing to close its Puente Hills landfill in October and has invited potential handlers of that waste to submit bids by Feb. 12.

“That’s one way to maximize the asset that we have,” said Hans Kernkamp, general manager and chief engineer for Riverside County Waste Management Department, in a telephone interview Friday.

The staff is leaving the sensitive question of what to do with the county’s landfill system — whether to sell it, lease it, contract out its operation or something else — entirely up to the Board of Supervisors. The executive office is suggesting a Feb. 26 workshop on the topic.

The study of the landfill system’s value by Hilton, Farnkopf and Hobson Consultants and a companion analysis of its operational efficiency by Blue Ridge Services were released late Thursday.

The county has six active and 32 closed landfills and owns a half-dozen transfer stations. The largest landfills are Badlands near Moreno Valley and Lamb Canyon between Hemet and Beaumont.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries of Lakeland Village said Friday that his “preliminary first blush” reaction was that he would consider contracting out operation of the waste disposal system to a private firm if that would save money.

But Jeffries said he does not favor a sale.

“I have strong reservations about actually selling it,” Jeffries said. “There are some significant long-term liabilities associated with each of our currently open landfills and our closed landfills that we have to maintain funds for, to close those up and make sure they stay sealed.”

Jeffries said he doesn’t want Riverside County to repeat the experience of San Diego County. According to a staff report, San Diego raised $59 million for its general fund through a $160 million landfill sale in 1997, but has since had to take $13 million out of its main bank account to cover long-term environmental obligations that officials previously thought were fully funded.

And Jeffries said the deal led to a reduction in waste collection services for rural San Diego County residents.

“My concern is the unintended consequences that we can’t even envision, that may happen,” he said.

Supervisor Marion Ashley also is reluctant to put the landfills up for sale.

“No way do I think we could sell our assets,” Ashley said.

But Ashley said he thinks the county might be able to raise a significant amount of cash for such crucial projects as jail expansion by leasing landfills.

The twin studies are the result of a November 2010 board directive to examine whether the county could raise cash to ride out hard economic times by selling or leasing, and to determine if the waste processing system is being handled as efficiently as it ought to be.